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Supermarket will kill Ulverston, residents claim

SEEING the draft plans for a supermarket right next to their homes for the first time has left worried Ulverston residents upset and angry.

Beehive cottage owners say they feel “sickened” after viewing the displays at the “Bringing Sainsbury’s to Ulverston” exhibition.

The supermarket giant wants to build a 20,000 sq ft store, off the A590 at West Lodge, Lightburn Road, known locally as the Beehive.

Sainsbury’s says it would create 150 jobs and the proposal includes a 260-vehicle car park, a customer restaurant, petrol station and two employment units.

There would also be new vehicle and pedestrian access from Lightburn Road. The existing junction with Daltongate would also be upgraded with traffic lights and pedestrian and cyclist crossings.

The company has been hosting a pre-planning public consultation to get feedback before it submits plans to South Lakeland District Council.

There are six cottages at the Beehive and some of those residents attended the first event in the consultation, which was held on Thursday night.

Linda Barker, 61, who has lived in her cottage for two years said: “I feel really, really sick seeing this plan.

“The whole thing worries me. My biggest worry is we are on the edge next to the store and the lorry area where the generators will be, it will be noisy. They will put up trees but our houses will be devalued.

“Now we are surrounded by wildlife, red kites, owls, woodpeckers, rabbits, but all that countryside will be gone.

“I haven’t met anyone who is in favour of this supermarket.

I fought the Robinson’s plan too. We just don’t need a supermarket, and what makes them think people from Barrow will come here?

“We are going to do our best to try and stop this, we have a fight on our hands.

“This plan will be the death of Ulverston.” Fellow Beehive resident Chris Byron says his house is the closest to the proposed store.

Mr Byron, who has lived there with his wife and child for five years, was led to believe the store would be further along the field.

He only learnt on Thursday the proposed supermarket site would, in fact, verge on his home and garden.

Mr Byron, who feels changes to the road could also pose potential danger to his home, said: “It was a real shock.

“We’ve always accepted there’s going to be something there, because it’s (earmarked for) employment land, but to have it right up to your doorway is another thing. It’s out of order.”

Have your say

I'm fed up of all these Ulverston Luddites speaking for the 'so called majority'. The South is full of thriving vibrant market towns like Ulverston. Yet they have Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Wetherspoons etc. Quality independent businesses will survive. Quality, choice and value on our doorstep is what locals like me (and many others) want and suspect will get.

Posted by Glenn on
4 June 2012 at 11:40

Ulverston shops, reasonably priced?!! Are you joking? I went into one of the butchers for two chicken breasts last month and paid over 9 quid. In a supermarket I could have got two cooked full chickens for that price. The shops in Ulverston are over-priced, often past their best and this partly explains why even on market days they seem virtually empty. If Ulverston wants to keep its shops, they really need to do better.